Audit and service improvement

These resources provide help with planning ahead for NICE guidance, understanding where you are now, and conducting improvement initiatives.

Assessment tools

Baseline assessment tools can be used to evaluate current practice and plan activity to meet the recommendations. These tools should always be used in conjunction with the clinical and public health guidelines they relate to.

Before April 2012, the tools produced for public health guidance were called self assessment tools.

Costing tools

NICE provides five types of costing tool:

National cost reports summarise the national estimate cost and discuss the assumptions made when estimating the financial impact of implementing the guidance. For technology appraisals, the report is incorporated into the costing template.

Costing templates support estimating the local cost of implementing guidance. and public health guidelines. These templates allow individual NHS organisations and local health economies to quickly assess the impact guidance will have on local budgets.

Business cases present the financial costs and benefits of implementing guidance.

Service planning

NICE has developed these tools to help those with a role in the strategic planning or delivery of services for a condition (or set of circumstances) that are addressed by NICE guidance. These tools are targeted at those who are responsible for planning and putting the guidance into practice.

The content of tools depends on the guidance but can include the following:

background information such as prevalence of the condition

an overview of the key steps and decision points in the pathway for a specific piece of NICE guidance

practical suggestions for putting NICE guidance into practice locally

identifying likely implementation barriers and possible ways to overcome these for different audiences.

Into practice guide

The Into practice guide helps and supports local health and social care provider organisations in implementing NICE guidance and using NICE quality standards to improve the quality of care they provide. The guide is a source of practical support to health and social care professionals and managers to enable them to provide care in line with NICE recommendations.